Steel beams are widely employed in the construction of many types of structures, and in particular tube beams, i.e., rectangular section pipes, are employed in many situations. These tube beams need to be cut and welded in the construction process.
Steel beams, including tube beams, need to be measured and scored or marked for cutting and welding. A problem arises from the presence of the radiused corners or edges of the pipe. Typically, the welder working with this type of pipe has to use a squaring tool to measure the places along the pipe where a cut or weld is to be positioned. However, a standard, i.e., flat framing square, is difficult to use at the front or open edge of the tube beam, partly owing to the curved corners of the beam. It is difficult or impossible to place the second arm or blade of a flat framing square against a flat side of the tube beam when measuring and marking the front edge of another flat side of the tube beam, and typically the welder will have to tilt the tool to attempt to position the second blade against the side of the tube beam. However, this can lead to inaccuracies in marking the beam.
It is this difficulty to which the present invention is addressed.